The Man with the Clubfoot eBook

Clubfoot, after casting a cursory glance round the
room, strode its length towards the bar where Haase
stood, a crowd of plain-clothes men and policemen
at his heels. Then quite suddenly the light went
out, plunging the place into darkness. Instantly
the room was in confusion; women screamed; a voice,
which I recognized as Clubfoot’s, bawled stentorianly
for lights ... the moment had come to act.

I grabbed a hat and coat from the hall, got into them
somehow, and darted to the door. In the dim light
shining down the stairs from a street lamp outside,
I saw a man at the door. Apparently he was guarding
it.

“Back!” he cried, as I stepped up to him.

I flashed in his eyes the silver star I held in my
hand.

“The Chief wants lanterns!” I said low
in his ear.

He grabbed my hand holding the badge and lowered it
to the light.

“All right, comrade,” he replied.
“Drechsler has a lantern, I think! You’ll
find him outside!”

I rushed up the stairs right into a group of three
policemen.

“The Chief wants Drechsler at once with the
lantern,” I shouted, and showed my star.
The three dispersed in different directions calling
for Drechsler.

I walked quickly away.

CHAPTER XV

THE WAITER AT THE CAFE REGINA

I calculated that I had at least two hours, at most
three, in which to get clear of Berlin. However
swiftly Clubfoot might act, it would take him certainly
an hour and a half, I reckoned, from the discovery
of my flight from Haase’s to warn the police
at the railway stations to detain me. If I could
lay a false trail I might at the worst prolong this
period of grace; at the best I might mislead him altogether
as to my ultimate destination, which was, of course,
Duesseldorf. The unknown quantity in my reckonings
was the time it would take Clubfoot to send out a
warning all over Germany to detain Julius Zimmermann,
waiter and deserter, wherever and whenever apprehended.

At the first turning I came to after leaving Haase’s,
tram-lines ran across the street. A tram was
waiting, bound in a southerly direction, where the
centre of the city lay. I jumped on to the front
platform beside the woman driver. It is fairly
dark in front and the conductor cannot see your face
as you pay your fare through a trap in the door leading
to the interior of the tram. I left the tram at
Unter den Linden and walked down some side streets
until I came across a quiet-looking cafe. There
I got a railway guide and set about reviewing my plans.